Copycat
by Toxxic-Lover
Summary: A glitch meets a virus. A very, very dangerous virus, meets the glitch of a powerful, half-finished Security-Test Navi; Forte. The unholy combination sends tremors through the scientific world, but is forgotten as the resulting monstrosity vanishes soon after its birth. What will happen when it emerges years later, hell bent on becoming a Navi, just to impress its parent program?
1. Prologue

Pro01loGGuEe

!$# %b346%&!#$^-

A damaged Forte falls before a cave in the Undernet, his pursuers close behind. He glares into the depths, his own crimson eyes greeted by a feral version of the exact same pair.

"Copycat!" He hisses through the pain, "Help me, you disgusting excuse for a program!"

A shape sifts out with jerks and twitches, covered entirely by a black cloak and hood, and sweeps around the Navi before his lair. Wide, curious eyes examine its parent program before picking him up and silently taking the black navi into the dry cave. Needle-like fingers move quickly to repair what they can before it hears the sound of Forte's pursuers.

As it whips around to face the entrance, Forte is enough in his right mind to cover his ears before a bone-shattering, error-like squeal escapes the creature above him. The sound is akin to the squeal of one of the first computers starting up, but much, much higher, with a background of grating white noise. The Navis outside collapse in pain, and their operators all manage to pull them out, but not before permanent damage is done. Those Navi will never hear again with out their entire audio receptors erased and started from scratch.

After the noise stops, the cloaked thing jerks when a hand touches its back. It turns back to its parent program, who motions for the thing to continue repairing him. A low purr comes from the creature, and it nods, going back happily to its appointed job.

!#$^#* $%^&12#$^

Sorry for the short prologue. Chapter one should be uploaded today or this weekend, so keep an eye out!


	2. Chapter 1

The labs are in a panic, alarms blaring. A virus has just been downloaded by a vengeful employee, and it's headed right towards their most important project yet. The scientists race to get it out of the system, but it's moving fast. No Navi can keep up with it long enough to delete the slime-like virus. This panic causes the slightest of errors to be ignored. The half-finished security test Navi- Forte -has just glitched. This half-formed error is a nearly perfect image of what the program will be, snapping off the main project. Just a small reflection that shouldn't have lasted more than a second... collides with the virus just before it would have infected the program.

The scientists don't know if they should be relieved or if they should panic more. This glitch attempts to absorb the virus as the virus tries to infect the glitch. Data seems to spark off and rejoin the thing at a rapid pace. The scientists watch through their monitors in half-horror, half-wonder as the two twist, warp...

...and fuse. Soon, it's hard to tell what part is glitch and what part is virus. The colors dance and change, settling on one color eventually as it begins to take shape.

Soon enough, the chaotic dance slow and becomes a gentle rotation as data settles. It's now a sphere, iridescently ice blue in color, like blue oil. Just before the gathered Navi around can react to this, something else happens. The sphere unravels, much like a snake from its egg.

Child-sized with big, red eyes, the newborn looks around the gathered crowd, golden fin protrusions on its head swaying softly with the movements of its head. With each twitch, parts of its pixels seem to glitch, and others emit a strange glow. A long tail, inherited from its virus parent, undulates behind it, flicking stray data every time it snaps softly.

After a moment of wonder at this strange birth, the scientists start to silently try to scan it. Its lips curl, black teeth bared as it feels the intruding scan. Its oil-like skin begins to bubble and hiss, then drip like liquid... upwards; ignoring any law of gravity the net has. The monster looks skyward, and the navi surrounding it all drop to their knees, a hell-summoned shriek piercing their digital skulls. Many of their operators followed suit.

Then, the new monstrosity takes off, seeming to swim shark-like at an intense speed, and didn't even slow down when it neared the firewall. A gut wrenching splat echoed once as it collides with the massive red wall.

A silent sigh of relief seems to go through all those who witnessed the error-spawned demon's attempt to flee. A rippling, nervous chuckle spreads among those not still affected by the earlier shriek. The Navi are recovering, the shriek not as powerful as it could have been. Most Navi leave, no longer needed, but a few are sent to investigate the slimy remains of the glitch.

As they get near, all stomachs turn into ice. Up close, it's obvious the blue remains of the being still attached to the wall are moving, shifting, and seeping through the tiniest cracks in the wall... and it vanishes into the net on the other side. There was a pause, as they all seemed to need a moment to register what had happened. Then the weaker stomached stained the floor with their lunches. Most scrambled to contact the netpolice, panic ruling the Lab once again.

! #$^5 #3!2 %27 $#^

A year later, the thing was forgotten as they celebrated Forte's activation. The minute scan that had been performed on the being revealed its data to be very unstable. Most managed to accept the fact that the thing had fallen apart soon after it escaped.

However, a select few knew what part of Forte's programming the glitch had come from. His ability to absorb fallen opponents. This knowledge, coupled with the fact that three police Navi had vanished that night, meant to those few that-theoretically-the thing could have absorbed enough data to stabilize itself.


	3. Chapter 2

A low noise rippled through a small, abandoned area of the net. This one was an old virtual reality system, long since lost to the Undernet. The graphics about were choppy and block-like. Something probably made in the 1900s. This noise that could be heard if one strained their ears was like a cross between a purr and static. Slowly, a blue shape paced around a digital pool of water. The liquid form of the beast made it stand out against its background. Like a drop of water in a barren desert. Red eyes watched the water, watched its reflection copy its every move. It stood up straight as it paused, looking at itself, admiring itself. Then it rolled its shoulders, watching with interest as it discovered itself. It knew it was a monstrosity. A freak. A warped, infected version of its parent program. Yet, the way its skin shone and seemed to shimmer with constant data fluctuations mesmerized it.

Once done learning its own movements and appearance, one single thought rolled through a newborn consciousness, echoing in an otherwise empty head. A curiosity, really. What did the program he came from look like? Was it as beautiful as it?

As if in response, its skin changed, hardening from its usual slimy self. Another face, young and pale in features, replaced its own, shifting face. Black and gold adorned the armor of this new form. Another static-like purr escaped the pale lips, and a voice as terrible as nails on a chalkboard squealed unnatural first words.

"Hello, Papaaaa~..."

- #$&!) %Sixteen !$ Years $%^ Later !%$#&*%-

"Meijin! We need a dimensional area!" A teen-aged Netto called into his PET, skating at high speeds from a giant Metool. Again.

One 'no need for formalities' later, and the surfaces all turned psychedelic colors. Netto grinned and was quickly in Cross Fusion. With six years of near-perfect peace, the study of Cross-Fusion was almost considered complete. The actual fusing was now quicker than ever, done in a single second. The synchronizing systems were close to perfected, causing next to no fatigue due to the fusion after it finished. Weapons and armor had been upgraded vastly as well, making the one giant Metool no problem for the brunette, as he easily sliced through it. Another virus appeared behind him, but was sliced down by a certain red-haired Jawaiian. Netto smiled at Dingo and turned to face the last two viruses of the group.

Groups of viruses had been appearing in the real world, but after a massive and greatly funded research effort, it was discovered that these were simply random occurrences due to residual data from Duo's Dimensional chips, rather than done on purpose by any group of criminals. The attacks were so common, many of Netto's friends had become Net Saviors just to keep the viruses under control. Now, they were becoming less and less as the data left over was used up.

One RockBuster blast and Tomahawk Swing later, and the dimensional area was taken down. The two friends caught their PETs when they rematerialized and Netto turned to Dingo.

"Thanks for getting that virus behind me." He grinned.

Dingo scoffed, "As if it could have hurt you anyway." Yet, the native Jawaiian grinned at him, "Let's go get something to eat, I'm starved."

"Yeah! Race you to MaHa's!" And Netto took off on his roller blades.

"No fair!" Dingo growled, running after him.

TomahawkMan sighed as a disgruntled Dingo plugged him into the net at Maha's a few minutes later, rolling his eyes, "I swear, they just won't ever outgrow their stomachs, huh?" He glanced over at Rockman, who'd been plugged in moments before.

Rockman laughed, "Nah, probably not. They'll probably have pudding-eating contests when they're old."

The resulting image of old versions of their operators arguing over mashed-up food made them both crack up quite a bit.

Roll, Glyde, and Iceman joined them a while later.

Everything seemed perfect. Peaceful. No one even seemed to notice when an outdated Police Navi plugged in. He waved shyly at the group and went to stand in one place all on his own. They invited him over once or twice, but he simply shook his head.

Then, Tomahawkman got curious and plugged back out into his PET.

"Hey, Dingo? Who's this guy's operator?"

"Huh? Who? There's no one here but us." Dingo blinked at Tomahawkman.

"Eh? Weird... There's an old Police Navi in here, we thought maybe a retired officer had come by..."

"Maybe he's just wandering around." Dingo shrugged, "His operator might be house-ridden or something."

"He isn't wandering..." Tomahawkman suddenly seemed concerned, "He's just standing in one place..."

Dingo rolled his eyes, "He's an old Navi, leave him be. Maybe he's here to reminisce or something." He waved his hand, "No need to worry."

Tomahawkman sighed, "I guess not." He plugged back in and passed on what Dingo had told him.

Then, of course, Roll had to make Tomahawkman's nerves worse.

"Yeah, we shouldn't worry about him. If anything, we should be keeping an eye out for the 'Copy Cat'." She giggled.

"The what?" Every pair of eyes turned to her, even the nearby navi's.

She grinned, "It's just a rumor. A few navi have been disappearing after their PETs were having issues. Some people think a virus is attacking the Navi and copying them to make others think they're the navi. Everyone's calling it the Copy Cat. I think it's just people not taking care of their PETs and losing their Navis because of it."

Rockman frowned, "Are you sure? Maybe we should really check it out..."

Roll raised an eyebrow, "Why? And feed the rumor? Come _on_. I heard it from that crazy Navi that lives down the street from Meiru." She shrugged, "Sorry for spooking you guys, I thought we'd get a good laugh out of it. I did."

Tomahawkman sighed, "Whatever."

"Hey, Rockman, let's head on home! It's getting late." Netto's face appeared in a screen beside Rockman.

"Alright...!"

Then Dingo appeared, "Hey, we're gonna stay later. Dekao says he needs help closing up."

Tomahawkman sighed, "Alright." He told his friends goodbye, then looked at the police Navi, "You ought to head home soon, they're closing."

The Navi nodded slowly, then spoke up, "Forgive me for having eavesdropped, but that 'Copy Cat' you mentioned earlier, you shouldn't have let it get to you." His voice was deep, gravely, almost. It held the authority of an officer, which helped Tomahawkman's nerves immensely.

"Ah... I know. It's just, with these virus attacks recently everyone's been on the look out for someone to pin the blame on, so something like that could spark something huge..."

The Navi nodded, "It is true. Rumors start wars, after all. Perhaps you could walk with me back to my Home Page? I would enjoy the company."

"Ah, let me ask my operator real quick, but sure!" He grinned and logged out real quick, "Dingo!"

The red haired NetOp looked up, "What chya need?"

"Can I escort this Navi to his home?" He tilted his head.

"Yeah, just be back pretty quick, okay?"

"Alright!" He went back and grinned at the Navi, "Let's go, then!"

The navi smiled gently and lead the way.

"So, where's your operator?" Tomahawkman's curiosity would hold no longer.

"KIA." The Navi glanced at him.

"...Oh... I'm sorry..." Tomahawkman immediately regretted asking.

"It's fine. Her husband takes good care of m#$e." The Navi coughed as his voice made a strange error-like squeal at the end, "Ah, forgive me. Old programming, you know."

"It's fine. How far off is your Home Page?"

"Not long now. Thank you for the company."

"It's nothing!" Tomahawkman chuckled, "What's your name, anyways?"

"...My name?" The Navi stopped, looking at the ground with an odd concentration to his eyes.

"Yeah. You _do _have one, right?" Tomahawkman chuckled nervously, suddenly a bit worried. He hoped he hadn't triggered a panic attack on the old Navi.

"Yes..." The Navi looked up at him, the gentle smile returning for a split second, then changing, a glitch like effect appearing over his mouth, making it warp into a twisted grin, filled with sharp, black fangs, "My name... is CopyCat."

((Please review! I'm losing a bit of inspiration for this one, but I'll try to keep going if you guys like it.))


End file.
